The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-22
The Good Old Times. Yankaa PIada

In this centennial year of the adop- tion of our constitution it is natural to revert to the customs, habits and manners of life of our forefathers of a hundred years ago. With that exag- gerated reverence which we are apt to pay to all things which are ancient, we have looked upon those "good, old times" as upon golden age which will never return, an age of right thinking and plain living, which shames the gaudy degeneracy of our own times. It is the hardest lesson we have to learn that progress is the inevitable tendency of the race, and that the present is always better than the past. Let us examine for a mo- ment the lives of the people of one hundred years ago.
 Wealth was the great social distinc- tion with the people of 1787. There was then no American literature, no art, no devotion, except among lim- ited few, to scholarly pursuits. The merchant in New England and the planter in the south were the envied favorites in fortune and the accepted leaders in the social and political world. Even Thomas Jefferson, whose name has come to be almost synony- nous with democracy, maintained a great manorial establishment at Mon- ticello, and lived in almost feudal authority among his vassals. John Hancock dressed in a style of regal magnifcence that even kings to-day would not attempt to initiate. "Han- cock" said visitor to his excellensy "was dressed in red velvet cap within which was one of fine linen The latter was turned up over the lower edges of the velvet one two or three inches, He wore a blue damask gown lined with silk, white stock, g white atin-embroidered waistcoat black satin small clothes, white silk stockings and red morocco slippers ) Yet we are called lavishly extravagant at the present day; but our richest millionaires can afford nothing better than plain broadcloth, and Jay Gould is said to walk to and from his busi- ness in straw hat and fifteen dollar suit.
 The means by which merchants acquired their wealth, to say the least were not less questionable than the means employed to-day. "The lessons taught in the counting room," says old Samuel Breck, "were of the most immoral character. So soon as ves- sel arrived one-half the cargo was hoisted into the upper part of the store, and the other half only entered at the custom house; and thus we were initiated in the secret of snug gling"
 The social life of the people at this time was corrupt. The grossest in- fidelity was rampant. The manners of the people were courtly and digni- fled, but intolerably artificial. In keeping with the times requirements of dignity the icy frigidity of his bearing is the one blemish on the character of Washington. Society then, much more than at present, was a matter of ruffies and lace; and the Haunting of purple and scarlet trap pings, of silks and velvets and satins, was not by any means confined to the feminine sex.
 At all familiar and social gather ings the punch bowl was indispensa- ble and the odor of New England rum saturated the air.
 Though we venerate the great work done by the fathers, yet we are not ready to say we have made no pro- gress in hundred years from their political, social, and moral standpoint.